5 favorites of the week

It’s that time of the week again where I share my favorites with you. I’m back to drinking warm morning tea (our apartment is so cold in the morning!), faithfully taking my probiotics every single morning (and sometimes in the evening before bed if something I ate for dinner isn’t agreeing with me. This happens with take-out food sometimes…), incorporating hemp seeds to everything (yogurt, granola, salads, salad dressings etc.) and not forgetting to apply that non-toxic sunscreen when I plan to spend an afternoon at the beach reading and relaxing.

1. Pukka Three Cinnamon Tea

I was first introduced to this tea last year by my friend Ellu when I was visiting Finland. Ellu and I go way back: we had been penpals (remember those times!?) since we were something like 8 or 9 years old, and found each other again when Facebook surfaced. Who would’ve known our interests were so similar today (back then we would write about New Kids On the Block mostly) and Ellu is also very much into yoga, spirituality and healthy living. Anyways, long story short: we met in Helsinki for some Nepalese food and crystal shopping, and she brought me Pukka’s Three Cinnamon Tea and I drank all of it while on my vacation. It’s just so delicious, warming, soothing, sweet and energizing.

I’ve been a lifelong suffered of digestive issues so I make sure I feed my gut the best I can, and that includes taking probiotics. I eat kimchi or sauerkraut with every lunch or dinner, but since my issues stem decades back, I like to also take high-quality probiotic supplements. I keep switching brands just to test them out and at the moment I’m back with my trusted USANA powder that I simply just add to my glass of water in the morning, sometimes at night as well if I’m not taking magnesium. I like to keep things moving.

3. Homemade hemp milk

I dislike the “draining through cheesecloth”-part of making your own nut milks so I found out that since hempseeds are so soft you can actually skip that step. I use recipe that calls for 4 cups of water and 1/2 cup of raw, shelled hemp seeds. You can also add 1-4 dates for sweetness if you’d like. Perfect to pour over granola.

4. Non-toxic Sunscreen

Did you know that 75% of the conventional sunscreens on the market are toxic? some sunscreen ingredients absorb into the blood, and some have toxic effects. Some release skin-damaging free radicals, some act like estrogen and disrupt hormones and several can cause allergic reactions. I’ve been using natural sunscreens for a while now and I have no complaints to make. I burn fairly easily without sunscreen, but most days I wear just coconut oil and take my chlorella. If I’m going to spend good time at the beach, I wear actual sunscreen and don’t burn. I have two favorites at the moment: My Skin’s Friend organic sunscreen and Supergoop’s Defense Refresh Setting Mist (with Rosemary and Mint).

While at the World Vegan Summit in Oakland last month I met two lovely ladies and we decided to meetup again for some exercise and food in Oakland. We headed to downtown Oakland to Core Kitchen (right off the 12th St. BART station). This place is right off my alley. It’s cute, bright, all organic, counter-serve style cafe with patio outside to enjoy your goodies. They don’t use oil, salt, gluten, flour or animal products, just produce. We tried a whole bunch of things between the 3 of us and none of them disappointed. I’m sure to return here many, many more times because the prices were not bad either and service was just magnificent. See my Yelp review here.